Best news of the day: Mars Bar is coming back to the East Village.
The place was shut down last July to make room for a luxury condo building and – what else! – a TD bank, but the owners now reveal that Mars Bar will indeed get a second act.
We are going to reopen,” 80-year-old co-owner Frank Penza told Bedford + Bowery, which notes plans were always on the table to bring Mars Bar back in one form or another.
The news was revealed after the latest Community Board 3 agenda noted that Mars Bar was heading back to 11-17 Second Avenue, after closing down amid fury from locals and regulars who protested the building of yet another high-rise in the neighborhood. And while it’s great news that Mars Bar is returning, it won’t likely resemble the original incarnation, especially since BFC Partners – who developed the Jupiter 21 apartments on the site – are involved. Translation: less grit, more class – and a food menu.
“I miss the old times, but you can’t be the same way no more,” Penza admitted. “There’s a lot of money invested.”
[Bedford + Bowery]
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